Ná-Meo (Vietnamese: ''Na Miểu'';

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

: 'Hsiu (2015)) is a language of northern Vietnam, spoken by the

Mieu people The Mieu people (aka Na Mieu, Na Mieo) live in the mountains of northern Vietnam. They are considered by the government of Vietnam to be a subgroup of the Hmong people and therefore not one of the 54 recognized ethnicities in Vietnam. However, the ...

. Nguyen (2007) believes Na Meo may be a Hmongic language closest to Qiandong Miao.

Classification

According to Andrew Hsiu (2015), Na Meo is most closely related to the Guncen 滚岑 and Zhenmin 振民 dialects of (ISO 639-3: ''hms''), which are spoken in

Rongshui Miao Autonomous County Rongshui Miao Autonomous County (; Standard Zhuang: ) is under the administration of Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. The seat of Rongshui County is Rongshui Town. It borders the prefecture-level divisions of Qiandongnan (Guizhou) ...

, northern

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

Province, China. This is evidenced by the

sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

Proto-Hmong–Mien *-ɛŋ > Proto-Na Meo-Guncen-Zhenmin *-a.

Distribution

The following locations are reported in ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

''. *Khánh Long Commune, Tràng Định District, northwestern Lạng Sơn Province **Khuổi Phu Dao village * Cao Minh Commune *Ca Liec village, Thạch An District,

Cao Bằng Province Cao or CAO may refer to: Mythology *Cao (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology Companies or organizations *Air China Cargo, ICAO airline designator CAO *CA Oradea, Romanian football club *CA Osasuna, Spanish football club *Canadian Associ ...

Nguyen (2007:31) reports the following additional locations. *Khuổi Giảo village, Cao Minh Commune, Tràng Định District, Lạng Sơn Province *Cai Liệng village, Thúy Hùng Commune, Thạch An District,

(ancestors crossed over from China via Trùng Khánh District) *Vũ Loan Commune,

Na Rì District NA, N.A., Na, nA or n/a may refer to: Chemistry and physics * Sodium, symbol Na, a chemical element * Avogadro constant (''N''A) * Nucleophilic addition, a type of reaction in organic chemistry * Numerical aperture, a number that characterizes ...

, Bắc Kạn Province *Kim Quan Commune, Yên Sơn District, Tuyên Quang Province (ancestors came from Yunnan to Bắc Giang Province via the Red River). Hsiu (2015) identifies the hamlet of Khuân Hẻ as the sole Na Meo-speaking location in Kim Quan Commune, Tuyên Quang Province.

References

Sources

*Hsiu, Andrew (2015)
''The classification of Na Meo, a Hmong-Mien language of Vietnam''
Paper presented at SEALS 25, Chiang Mai, Thailand. *Nguyễn Văn Thắng (2007). ''Ambiguity of Identity: The Mieu in North Vietnam''. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books. *Nguyễn Anh Ngọc (1975). "Vài nét về nhóm Na Miểu". In, Ủy ban khoa học xã hội Việt Nam: Viện dân tộc học. ''Về vấn đề xác định thánh phần các dân tộc thiểu số ở miền bắc Việt Nam'', 377-388. Hà Nội: Nhà xuất bản khoa học xã hội. {{DEFAULTSORT:Na-Meo language Hmongic languages Languages of Vietnam